


A Start

by Noisesandvoices



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: F/M, GTA AU, Police Officer Peake, Pre-FakeHaus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 09:34:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10533750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noisesandvoices/pseuds/Noisesandvoices
Summary: James is a pickpocket and Elyse has a pocket.





	

There's a long time where he only survives off of wallets stolen from nameless faces in the crowd. Before he has a crew by his side and he's planning big time heists, he considers it a good day when someone doesn't wrap their hand around his wrist and starts announcing he's a pickpocket to the world. Those good days become far more common as he perfects his craft.

He drops fancier techniques in favor of the classics. He picks a mark and is quick to stumble over his own feet, falling into them. He steadies himself, one hand holding on tight to their arm, and flashes a pearly white smile and winks with bright blue eyes. While he's running through a standard apology, no one notices that their credit card is slipping from their pocket into his. It's something he does on autopilot at this point. He doesn't register who he's stealing from, more focused on the location of pockets rather than who the person is.

That quickly becomes bullshit the second he runs into her.

He doesn't pick her on purpose. The thought process boils down to "Swinging ponytail and wide grin. Ditzy. Easy Target". He runs through his standard operation, tripping over his own feet, forcing her to catch his weight. She rights both of them and he looks up to drop his distraction, but she cuts him off. She's staring at him with worries eyes, a sweet voice asking, "Are you okay?"

It throws him off. It takes him a second to put himself back on track, smiling, winking. saying, "Better thanks to you". She rolls her eyes but still laughs and his fingers only falter for a moment when he hears her laugh. She squeezes his arm slightly and he realizes she never let go after catching him. He's not sure why this realization has been pushed to the forefront of his mind. She tells him to be more careful and flashes him a smile as she turns to leave. He tries to ignore the part of his brain telling him he doesn't need her money.

He's already late on his rent. He's been trying to save up to move out of his shithole apartment into a slightly less shithole apartment. He still needs to get groceries for the week. 

She only gets a few feet away before he's swearing under his breath and running to catch up to her, wallet in hand. He lies, says she dropped it when he ran into her, apologizes as genuinely as he can. When she smiles brightly at him and says "Thank you" he shouldn't be as happy as he is. He decides he must be having an off day because he hears himself asking if she's busy, if she wants to grab a coffee with him.

Before he can backtrack and slap himself, she tells him she's busy right now but wouldn't mind meeting up. With a smile on her lips while rambling about a great coffee shop nearby that she loves, he watches her punch her number into his phone. As she hands it back, she looks up at him with a small grin.

"I'm Elyse by the way."

"James."

He decides she's too trusting. There's no way with the way she acts that she's going to survive in this city. A real name, a real number, a real meet up. How the hell has she not gotten herself killed? He's stewing in these thoughts, keeping his hands warm with a cup of coffee, watching as she laughs and smiles and tells him to give her a celebrity. 

"I'm the master of impressions" she tells him.

He doesn't bite his tongue fast enough to stop the words, "How are you alive," from coming out.

Elyse looks confused, stunned, and James has to continue. Has to voice his thoughts, what he won't admit to himself are concerns, out loud.

When he finally stops, she laughs, happy and loud and tells him, "If we weren't in my favorite shop, I would show you my gun". 

That isn't good enough for him and he pushes her, asks why she agreed to meet him, why she gave him a real number.

She smiles, shrugs, says, "I'm usually a good judge of character," and sips at her coffee.

Before James can be pulled back into his thoughts, Elyse slaps her hand against the table, demanding that he name a celebrity.

It's about halfway through this not a date that he realizes she's married. She stops to take a call and he hears her answer the phone with a quick, "Hey hun," and the light from a nearby window reflects off her ring and directly into his eyes. He feels like a moron for not realizing that sooner. The two things he prides himself, the two things he needs to survive are quick hands and more importantly observant eyes. 

It takes him a moment to wonder why he even cares that she's married.

The conversation seems mostly one sided with Elyse answering almost exclusively with "mhm" and "of course", until she freezes, looking at him. 

"Oh, I'm getting coffee with a friend. Yeah, yeah, you know Samantha? Yeah, I'm with her."

He quirks an eyebrow at that, but stays silent, lets her finish the call. She hangs up and sighs, dropping her face in her hands. Apparently her husband gets jealous easily and she just doesn't want to start an argument. James has to hold in the question "Should he be jealous" and chooses to instead nod and offer to buy her another drink. 

As they leave, she suggests they get together again. He can't help but agree.

Their not dates don't stop. It starts with just getting coffee or lunch, but over time it expands from just an hour or so spent together around lunch to seeing movies and getting dinner, spending hours with each other, slowly feeling like actual dates. He starts to pickpocket far more often to fund their meals, refusing to let Elyse pay for herself. He jokes that he's just being a gentleman. Slaps against his arm when he makes dumb jokes become gentler, the hand lingering for a second longer than necessary. Goodbyes change from waves to hugs. Get togethers are no longer at public places, but instead at his apartment. They spend nights watching movies, the reasonable amount of space between them diminishing over time.

The first and only time he comments on one of her bruises is early on in their relationship. She meets him in front of a theater and he stops her before she can say anything. He doesn't think as he runs his fingertips across the bruise sitting on her cheek and his voice is low as he asks, "Elyse, what happened? Did you get jumped? Are you okay?" He knows he imagines it when she leans into his touch before locking eyes with him, quietly telling him, "I'm okay. I don't want to talk about it. Please,". He nods and runs his thumb across her jaw before pulling away. 

James doesn't bring it up again, doesn't ask questions, but he's observant and if someone asks him, he's pretty smart. He spends an entire day doing nothing but reaching into pockets, working his way across the city so people don't start to get suspicious, don't start to catch onto what is happening. He sets aside a small amount of the money for rent, food, other necessities, and uses the rest to pay a friend of his to do him a favor. 

He doesn't have enough to get him to actually kill the guy like he wants, but he settles for a beating, settles for broken legs and a message. 

"If you hurt her again, you're dead."

"Technically he won't be dead unless you can pay me in full."

"Kovic, please work with me here. You can lie a little."

Elyse doesn't mention her husband getting attacked, but her bruises actually have time to heal, rather than being replaced with new ones. He knows it's not a permanent solution, but she smiles brighter, so for now it works.

They exclusively spend time together at James' place, Elyse driving herself over and then driving herself home. Eventually, it just becomes routine. Until one night her car breaks down, and she calls him, a bit frantic as she tells him she's still coming over, she just needs to call a cab. He tells her it's fine, she doesn't have to come over if it's too inconvenient.

"No, no, I still want to come over. I want to get out of the house tonight."

Their night goes longer than normal. Every movie they watch reminds them of another, and then another, and another and another and another until it's nearly one in the morning. It doesn't dawn on them how late it is until they're stifling yawns. Before James can offer her his bed while he crashes on the couch, she's panicking.

She's digging into her bag, grabbing for the wallet he had stolen once before. "I need to get home right now. I've got to call a cab and I'm not sure if I have enough money for the ride back, I was in such a hurry leaving." He places his hands on her shoulders, trying to stop her, trying to ground her.

"I'll get you home. It'll be okay."

She's hesitant, but after a moment she nods her head and moves quickly, grabbing the things she's accidentally spread across the apartment. He watches her grab her phone off the counter where it was charging. He can see the phone lit up with messages.

He can feel her head buried between his shoulder blades the entire time he drives. He feels guilty for trying to absorb the memory despite the nervousness radiating off of her. He's focused on her arms wrapped around his waist, the feeling of her breath against his neck when she shifts. At a red light, he pulls his hand off the bar to squeeze around her fingers. It feels right, even if just for a fraction of a second.

The front door opens as soon as he stops in front of the house. He doesn't get a chance to give a proper goodbye or set up another not date before she's jumping off his bike, throwing him a quick "Drive safe" and moving quickly to the door. Elyse's husband is standing on the front porch, staring at James, straight through his helmet. She stops next to him and says something, from this distance he's not sure what, and places a kiss on his cheek. His eyes don't shift off of James until he starts the bike and drives down the street.

If he just goes around the block and then sits outside of her house until he's sure the argument stops at words, until he sees the lights turn off throughout the house, well that's his business.

When her birthday comes around, James actually bothers to buy her something, rather than letting old habits take over. It would be easy to let the gift fall into his sleeve and simply walk out of the store with it, but he finds himself in front of the cashier. They grin, ask him, "Oh, this for your girlfriend?" He doesn't answer, just offers a tight smile.

For the first time, he gets a text from her asking her to come pick her up. The request is immediately followed by a second text, asking if she can sleep on his couch for a while. She offers no explanations and he doesn't ask for any. He just tells her "Yes," and that he'll "Be there in 15".

On the drive over he remembers something she mumbled over dinner one night. She was sitting next to him on the couch, a plate on her lap. Her voice was quiet as she whispered in between bites of food, "If...If I leave him, can I stay here? Just for a bit."

He couldn't say yes fast enough.

When he pulls up, he plans to send a quick text just to let her know he's outside, but he can hear fighting and arguing, glass breaking, screaming, Elyse screaming. His body is working on autopilot sending him running towards the door. His mind is losing control as he throws himself against the it, trying to get it open. His thoughts start shrieking when he hears a gunshot go off.

He's slamming the door open, stumbling inside, her name spilling out of him in a panicked shout. He finds himself sprinting through the house, having to stop himself when he finds her standing in the kitchen. He can't help the sigh of relief when he sees that she's holding the gun.

There's a body at her feet, but he can't tear his eyes away from her face. The cuts along her cheek, the bruises starting to form, the blood flowing from her nose and lips, the panic in her eyes. She doesn't move, doesn't speak until he moves closer, whispers her name.

"Elyse."

Her eyes snap to him and she starts spitting words out as quickly as she can.

"I was defending myself, James, I swear to god. He, he had never gotten this bad before and he was accusing me of cheating on him and he found out I going to leave him. He was trying to stop me. He, oh god, he threatened to kill me James. You have to believe me, please."

He's quick to stop her, hands gentle on her arms, voice quiet as he asks, "Are you okay?"

She's quiet for a moment before she nods, whispers, "Better thanks to you." He doesn't think as he places a kiss to her forehead, pulling her close.

"Okay. You're going to be okay. Where are your things? I'm going to take you home."

The next several hours are a blur that he spends in the Los Santo Police Department, convincing the one dirty cop on the force he managed to make friends with that Elyse is innocent. He spends too long explaining to Officer Peake that this guy was a scumbag, that it would be an awful press day for the LSPD if they spent their time dragging Elyse through investigations, for something "She had nothing to do with."

"If she didn't shoot him, who did?"

"You could always say it was a robbery gone wrong. I'm pretty sure at least $500 were missing." He's flashing a bright smile.

"Only $500?"

"I'm sure if we put our brains together, we can figure out exactly how much this mystery burglar got away with."

It's late that night, after James has cleaned up Elyse's wounds, bandaging and disinfecting as well as he can, that the two of them find themselves on James' shitty couch. The TV is playing something neither of them are paying attention to, both just trying to take deep breaths and enjoy the calm. It's after a moment that he remembers why they were having a not a date that night. He reluctantly leaves Elyse, standing up to grab his jacket off the table and rummage through the pocket. With a bit of digging, he find the necklace he had had bought earlier that week.

"I didn't wrap it, but happy birthday Elyse."

She runs the chain through her fingers for a moment before she turns to him, a small smile on her lips, her eyes exhausted but happy, and leans forward.

It's a small kiss, just a tired slide of lips, but it's enough.

**Author's Note:**

> This the first time I've been willing to post my work that wasn't a collab. I hope ya'll like, kudos and comments are appreciated. xoxo


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